Tag Archives: Lucas

Even though I wasn’t sure that he was on our side, I decided to act as if I thought so. “How soon?”

He made a gurgling noise. “I can’t say—-”

Whatever he said after that turned into indecipherable noise, and then he hung up.

I stood there, smelling my own sweat and a faint burned smell that seemed familiar. Then I knew why. It reminded me of the smell my arm had given off when I’d been hit by dragon fire. Continue reading Revelations: Part 10→

Loosening my choke hold, I dropped to the ground, putting Lucas body in the center of the wards Samita had set up on the floor. The Thing That Eats’ head had disappeared, revealing Lucas’ face.

As he lay on the concrete between black lines and symbols that I didn’t recognize, I reminded myself that he had to be alive. I’d choked him correctly, and I’d timed it. The Thing That Eats had a talent for playing on people’s fears. My longstanding one was that I’d kill somebody who didn’t deserve it, and he’d done his best to play on it. Continue reading Revelations: Part 8→

Travis’ voice came over the comm. “Don’t get too close. I’ve got a plan.”

I didn’t have time to ask him about the plan. The Thing disappeared through the wide hangar door. We could have closed it. It would have bought Travis time, but on the other hand, he didn’t seem to need it and The Thing would have trashed our door.

It was a big metal door that ran from the ceiling to the floor—not exactly the kind of thing you can pick up at Lowe’s.

Haley’s face tightened as her other arm raked it across the eye while her legs dug in to the underside of its globular face. Blood spurted out from under the The Thing’s chin and it spit her arm out.

Haley had the presence of mind to land on her feet, but wobbled as she landed. Her costume, in the meantime, had already repaired itself. I might have taken it as a tribute to my work, but that wasn’t nearly as high in my mind as the question of whether the costume had adjusted correctly to the change. If it were pushing broken bone into flesh or muscle, it could only be hurting her.

Before anyone else could respond, Haley looked me in the eye (as much as the foot and half difference between her height and the Rocket suit’s would allow), saying, “We’ll all meet him.”

She had a point. Lucas had the exact same powers as Red Lightning—strength, toughness, flight, and obviously, lightning. Even if he wasn’t in the Cabal’s league, he was definitely in mine.

“Ok, but let’s not be too obvious about it. If he’s not infected, we don’t want to freak him out. Night Cat and I go first to meet him. That won’t seem weird. If Storm King and Gravity Star stand in the command center, they’ll look inconspicuous, but still be able to act. Essentially they’re our last line of defense. After that, those of you without wards will have to blast him with whatever distance weapons or powers you’ve got because if he touches you, you’ll be on his side.”

The van rolled down the ramp and into the parking area under the building. I wondered if we’d have to go upstairs to get his attention, but ultimately didn’t have to.

He slid down the fireman’s pole in the corner.

That seemed like a good sign. I didn’t know The Thing That Eats particularly well, but it didn’t seem particularly whimsical. Being possessed by a ancient supernatural entity didn’t seem likely to leave you in a good enough mood to want to try the pole.

He walked toward the van and I pushed the button to open the door. As he stepped inside, Haley stepped back into the main area, holding out her hand to help him in.

A breeze blew across the roof, and I thought about what he’d said. “I’m not making the decisions, but I can bring it up. One thing we’d probably want is that you’d train with us at least a couple times a week. That way we can coordinate.”

Haley added, “We’ll probably have to bring it to a vote, but we know you. I don’t think anyone would be against it.”

She pursed her lips. “Don’t take this wrong, but why now? I know we’re dealing with that gang, but we’ve fought other people over the past year.” Continue reading Intrusion: Part 2→

I waited to see what would happen, but after a few minutes, Jeremy texted me, writing, “J’s talking to cops. I’m riding along. You can go home.”

I typed back, “OK,” told everyone what was going on, and drove back to the dorms.

After we got back to the university, we all walked together back to the dorm. After we got there, Caleb and Gabriel walked off toward their own rooms. Courtney hung around with Haley, Camille and me in my room for about an hour after that, talking through everything we’d wished we could have said to each other back in the van. Continue reading Intrusion: Part 1→

The sole good point about Sean calling to gloat was that I could at least be sure that he didn’t expect me to call back. Lucas, I felt fairly sure, did.

Clicking on the icon that distorted my voice to match how the Rocket sounded in person, I set the voice mail program to dial. I felt sure Lucas would catch that this was an official call—which was good considering he’d probably inherited his grandfather’s resistance to mental tampering.

Daniel had put in our version of the Block on each Justice Fist member back when we all fought Prime and the Cabal’s private army. He’d told me to assume Lucas didn’t have one.